When Vacuums Rule: 5 Most Uplifting Stories of the Week

Some nice gestures for loved ones highlights this week's uplifting stories:

• Best Birthday Ever for Autistic Teen: For his 14th birthday, a mom in Chesterfield, Va., arranged to have a vacuum cleaner salesman conduct a demo for her son. Unusual, but also a huge success: The teen is autistic and kind of a vacuum savant. "I imagine it was like a sports fan meeting one of his idols, like Michael Jordan," says the salesman.
• Cop Stages Phony Traffic Stop to Propose: When Sara Wolff got pulled over by a Galveston cop, he told her she had a broken taillight along with outstanding warrants. Hassle? Nope, not when another cop she happened to know very well showed up with a ring.

• Patriots Player Rescues Driver Hours After Game: A Good Samaritan in Massachusetts stopped to help a woman in an overturned vehicle, which made more headlines than usual because of one weird twist: The Good Samaritan was New England Patriots star Vince Wilfork, and the driver was a woman who was watching him play at Gillette Stadium hours earlier.
• Woman Returns Bag of Cash to Burger King: A New Hampshire woman got a surprise at a Burger King drive-thru: a bag full of cash instead of food. It seems an employee accidentally handed her the store's bank deposit instead of her chicken sandwich. A talk with her husband settled the next move.
• Lost Hikers Survive on Bugs, Spring Water: Hope was fading for three hikers in their 20s lost for about a week in the mountains of Turkey. But bugs, spring water, and a phone that suddenly got some bars proved to be life-savers.

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